Bright shines as leader for Poway volleyball squad

CARLSBAD -- When Lisa Reis looked around at this year's girls
volleyball team at Poway High she not only saw just six seniors,
but the team also was missing an on-the-court leader.

So Reis approached shy and quiet Ashley Bright, a 5-foot-10
outside hitter who was an All-Palomar League selection on last
year's CIF Division I championship team, and congratulated her.
Bright was going to be one of the new team leaders.

"I kind of dreaded it for a while," Bright said after the Titans
defeated a younger Carlsbad team 25-19, 25-14, 25-20, on Thursday
evening.

"Being loud and vocal and confrontational with the younger girls
is not me at all. We had Lindsay (Olhausen) to boss us around last
year, and I was fine with that.

"I wasn't even sure what I should do as the leader. It's a
strange role for me, but it's not too bad now."

Bright led the Titans (1-1) with nine kills and three blocks
against the Lancers. She had plenty of help from sophomore Lauren
Buckley, who had eight kills and three blocks, and junior Simone
Brandalise, who had five kills and six blocks.

Poway posted a 15-8 edge in blocks in a game dominated by
unforced errors.

Carlsbad got nine kills, two blocks and two aces from sophomore
Courtney Tanner and five blocks from senior Christi Sodano.

"We have just three girls with a driver's license," said
first-year Carlsbad coach Jason Harper, whose club has four
freshmen and four sophomores. "If we play like we did against Poway
the rest of the year, we'll be OK in league. The girls have to
learn to grind through the frustrating times in a match.

"Without a lot of returners, that's a hard lesson to learn."

Poway grabbed the lead in the first game at 5-4 and didn't trail
again until the Lancers (1-6) went ahead 3-2 in the third game. The
Titans used a 4-0 run to grab the lead at 7-6 on a block by
Brandalise in that third game. They never relinquished the lead
again.

"Every day we work on something new, review something and add
something new," Reis said. "The encouraging thing about this game
was we played way better defense."